Lost Nomad links to an article that says that Koreans spent 15 trillion won on English lessons last year. And that the results aren’t really showing. Eeek.
Category: KOREA
Outstanding
Lime told me today, as we were talking about the educational system in Korea, “I don’t believe this country’s future is so bright.” The reasons she gave, though, were interesting.
Kim Jong Il declares Japanese Tsunami an “Act of War”
A tsunami warning in Japan was issued after major quake in the ocean, and Kim Jong Il, always quick on the draw with his dialectic, has spoken out against the Sea of Japan. The Japan, he’s a bery bad, and he making the colonies like a Monopoli game, and him not equipped to withstanding my it’s a Juche. This it’s a tsunami it’s an act of American Aggression through the flunkyist crony of the Japan. He making is Sea of Korea make Sea pushing and crush the Free land of Joseon [North Korea]. Apparently Kim was then dragged away, while …
Chun Doo-hwan’s stash, dude!
And his son and grandson apparently have it! Daddy provided, didn’t he? It sucks to be the son of a thief, huh? Easy come, easy go, homeboy. You gotta pay up, and soon.
1960s Korean Fashion Show
Hunjangûi karûch’im. Andre Kim fashion show in the 1960s. Blows my mind. And yes, I am catching up with my newsgator feeds.
Scientific Creativity, East and West
Malcolm at waka waka waka links to (and discusses) a fascinating debate about Scientific Creativity, East and West. Personally, I think there are factors in some East Asian societies that do play negatively on things like creativity, but it’s my limited experience and I don’t think it’s necessarily irremediable. Cutting out a lot of the rote learning that everyone agrees factors too largely in East Asian education systems would go a long way to changing things. When Kanazawa says “Asians can’t think”, he’s really saying something more like, “Asians aren’t really commonly equipped or rewarded by their culture and education …
Hackers of the Free World: Unite and Humiliate These Bastards!
Hey, so I was reading a post at North Korea zone titled Do They Read NKZone in Pyongyang? and it pointed out that the official websites for the DPRK are mostly hosted on servers in China and Japan. Guys, ladies, if there’s someone who deserves continuous DOS attacks and having their site hacked and replaced with all kinds of hateful mockery, even more than Microsoft, it’s the DPRK. Come on, hackers. Show us that you really care about freedom in this world.
Livelihoods in North Korea
Another good link from the Hunjang, this time on livelihoods in North Korea. Basically, sanctions won’t hurt many of the average people, but they will hurt the hell out of the ruling class.
The Wrong Guy
I’m probably the wrong guy to be teaching about punk rock & the Sex Pistols. The most wrong guy that could ever be found, perhaps. But I’m doing it anyway, and boy am I grateful that I ordered that Greil Marcus book Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. And that I didn’t get rid of it the first time I tried (unsuccessfully) to read it. I may actually meander my way through the whole thing sometime soon. It’s interesting, if a bit circumstantial at points. UPDATE: As if on cue, I came across something at Antti’s site, …
Antti on Dr. Hwang’s Evil Buddies
So Antti’s got a post up on the PD Memo team’s having received prssure from the government not to out the fact that Dr. Hwang was a lying bullshitting son of a —–. Because, what, it might be embarrassing to Korea? Yeah, covering this kind of thing up is even more embarrassing, because the truth often comes out. So if politics can interfere even in what science news gets published, what discipline is safe? It’s hard to trust academia in a country where the government is censoring the very mechanisms by which bad, fake, dishonest science is outed and discredited. …